The 2025 Grand Challenge IV is the first and only online tournament to use the Regulation Set I ruleset, allowing the use of Paradox Pokemon, Legendary Pokemon, along with a choice of only two Restricted Special Pokemon per team. It is the final online event of the 2025 VGC series.
It's important to note that these online events use a best-of-1 Closed Team Sheets (CTS) format, compared to the best-of-3 Open Team Sheets (OTS) format used for official in-person tournaments organised by The Pokemon Company International. While an OTS format allows you to see your opponent's Pokémon, their held items, moves, Tera type, and abilities, a CTS format only allows you to see the opponent's Pokemon. Along with the fact that only one round is played against your opponent to determine a victory instead of two or three, this allows certain Pokémon to shine brighter and perform better than they otherwise would in other tournaments.
The following list shows the Top 16 players eligible for Championship Point (CP) rewards, as well as the teams they used to reach their placements. The teams used in these online tournaments aren't ever officially released, so it's up to the players themselves to publish their teams. Due to this, there are gaps in many teams shown below. There are also players who choose not to reveal their team publicly, possibly to ensure that other players in future offline events won't be able to prepare against their team.
2025 Grand Challenge III Champ.
Ranked #15 in Europe
Ranked #20 in Europe
2025 Perth Regional Top 16
Ranked #75 in Europe
2022 Europe International Champ.
Ranked #114 in US and Canada
#15 in 2025 Grand Challenge III
Ranked #59 in Europe
Ranked #6 in Oceania
Ranked #63 in US and Canada
Ranked #16 in Europe
2022 EUIC Top 16
The Winning Team
The team used to win the 2025 Grand Challenge IV is identical to the team used by now-2x Regional Champion Andrew Ding to win the recent 2025 Milwaukee Regionals. The team was also used by 2016 Senior World Champion Carson Confer and 2023 Liverpool Regional Champion Luca Paz to place in the Top 4 of the same event, as well as 2023 Hartford Regional Champion Shiliang Tang in the Top 32.
One of the strongest and most threatening aspects of the team is its overall bulk. Grimmsnarl can use Light Screen and Reflect, given priority by its ability Prankster, to instantly reduce any incoming special or physical damage by a third. It also gets access to the attack Spirit Break, which guarantees the target's Special Attack is lowered. Incineroar is well-known for its ability Intimidate, lowering the Attack stats of any opposing Pokémon, as well as access to both Will-O-Wisp, cutting any burned Pokémon's Attack stat in half, and Parting Shot, lowering the target's Attack and Special Attack stats before switching out. Miraidon holds the Assault Vest item to boost its Special Defense by 50% instead of holding the Choice Specs to boost its damage. It also uses the attack Snarl to deal small amounts of Dark-type damage, great against Pokémon with 4x weaknesses to the attack like Lunala and Calyrex's Shadow Rider form, while also lowering both targets' Special Attack stats. With its signature ability Hadron Engine, Miraidon sets up Electric Terrain to boost its Special Attack and the power of Electric-type attacks. However, Lunala also holds the Electric Seed item, boosting its Defense stat by one stage in the Electric Terrain, boosting the team's bulk even further.
Despite the team's great defenses, its power isn't to be underestimated. Urshifu's Water-type Rapid Strike form uses the Choice Band to boost the power of its attacks by 50%, Miraidon uses the aforemention Electric Terrain to boost its Special Attack and the power of its Electric-type attacks, and Lunala can use its defensive Fairy-type terastallization to boost the damage of Moonblast. One of the more overpowering parts of this team's offense, however, is Lunala's option to use the move Trick Room. This effectively reverses the speed of the game — slower Pokémon move first, and faster Pokémon move last. This allows Ursaluna, one of the slowest Pokémon in the entire game, to deal huge amounts of damage before its opponents can attack it. Ursaluna uses the Flame Orb held item to ensure it gets burned on the first turn it switches in. While this would normally cut its Attack stat in half, Ursaluna instead sees its Attack stat boosted by 50% thanks to its ability Guts. This also increases the power of Facade, a Normal-type attack that has its power doubled if the user is burned. Facade is typically a 70 base power attack, but with an added boost from the same-type attack bonus (STAB), another power boost from Guts, and double power from being burned, Facade acts as if its base power is instead 315.
The next events in the 2025 VGC series are the 2025 Utrecht Special Championships, Santiago and Melbourne Regionals, and Thailand Master Ball League — all taking place from the 17th-18th of May 2025. For coverage of these events, and every event leading up to the 2025 World Championships, make sure to keep an eye on Bulbagarden!
